I am a Tombstone Tourist: someone who loves to wander cemeteries. I find it akin to visiting a museum: an opportunity to enjoy rarely seen sculpture, intricate carvings, and amazing architecture, all in a tranquil outdoor setting. This blog is about cemetery culture, art, history, issues of death, and genealogy - subjects of current relevance. I usually find something that intrigues me and makes me want to dig deeper. Care to join me? Read on...

Friday, September 26, 2014

Most
of us have heard the story of Daniel Boone, the pioneer and frontiersman who
helped blaze a trail into America’s early frontier. Or maybe we remember the TV
show “Daniel Boone,” which ran from
1964 to 1970 – not exactly a lesson in history, but it did have a catchy intro
song …

Quakers

Daniel
Boone was born on November 2, 1734 the sixth of eleven children that Squire and
Sarah (Morgan) Boone would have. The Boones were Quakers and lived in the Oley
Valley, near what is now Reading, Pennsylvania. Daniel grew up learning to hunt
with the Lenape Indians who lived nearby.

Boone
had very little formal education but could read and write, and enjoyed reading
Gulliver’s Travels to his hunting buddies around a campfire.

French and Indian War

Daniel
volunteered for the French and Indian War in 1755 and served under Captain Hugh
Waddell as a wagoner in North Carolina. While serving, Boone met John Findley
who told him stories about the abundance of game and beautiful settings of the
Ohio Valley. Boone’s interest was peaked but it took 12 years before he would
make that hunting trip into Kentucky.

Mrs. Boone

In
August 1756, Boone married Rebecca Bryan and settled down in North Carolina
saying he now had all he needed, "a
good gun, a good horse, and a good wife." Over
the years, they had a total of ten children. Boone supported his large family
by hunting and trapping, leaving every autumn on long hunts that could last for
months.

Squire Boone

Daniel
again served in the military during the “Cherokee Uprising” in 1758, moving his
family to safety in Virginia until the conflict was over. In 1767, Boone
reached Kentucky with his brother, Squire. While there he ran into his old
friend, John Findley who convinced him to take a long hunting expedition
through Kentucky.

Boonesborough

Through the Cumberland Gap

Boone
left in 1769 to clear a trail through the Cumberland Gap; he was gone for two
years. When he returned, he packed up his family and moved with another 20 or
so families along the Wilderness Road and into Kentucky. Boone led the pioneers
to a spot along the Kentucky River and named it Boonesborough.

The American Revolution

With
the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, the Indians saw a chance to
drive the colonists out of Kentucky. By 1776 less than 200 people remained in
the area. Those that did were staying in the fortified settlements of
Boonesborough, Harrodsburg, and Logan’s Station.

Rescuing Jemima

Then
on July 14, 1776 Boone’s daughter, Jemima and two other local girls were
captured by a Cherokee and Shawnee war party. Boone and a group of local men
were able to get the girls back two days after the ambush. (A fictionalized
version of the story was written and entitled Last of the Mohicans in 1826.)

Boone Taken Captive

Two
years later, Boone was captured by the Shawnee Indians. He eventually escaped
and returned to Boonesborough to help defend it against Indiana raiders. He
then left to purchase land for the settlers but was robbed of the monies. He
was forced to repay all of the settlers and was never able to escape from the
lawsuits and debt.

Daniel Boone

Boone
was elected to several government offices including sheriff, lieutenant
colonel, and as a legislative delegate. But Kentucky had lost its appeal and
Boone moved his family to Upper Louisiana; what is now Missouri, in 1799.

Hunting in Missouri

Spain
owned this part of the country and Boone was treated well by the Spanish
government, receiving a large land grant and a leadership title. Boone was happy
with his life until the U.S. took over the land and denied
his claim to the land. It wasn’t until 1814 that Congress restored a part
of his landholdings to him.

Nathan's Home

Rebecca
Boone died in 1813 and Boone moved near St Charles, Missouri to live with his
son, Nathan.Daniel Boone died in
Defiance on September 26, 1820. He was 85 years old.

Daniel
Boone was buried next to his wife in an unmarked grave in Marthasville,
Missouri. The graves were marked with stones sometime in the mid-1830s. But in
1845, Boone’s remains, along with Rebecca’s, were disinterred and moved to the
new cemetery in Frankfort, Kentucky, the state’s capital. But were they?
Controversy has existed over this for almost 170 years.

The Missouri Stone

The
folks in Missouri claimed that Daniel Boone’s grave stone was actually placed
over the wrong grave but no one had done any thing about it. When the
Kentuckians arrived, they took the wrong remains back with them.

Carving on Kentucky Stone

Kentucky Monument

In
1983, a forensic anthropologist examined the plaster cast that had been made of
Boone’s skull before the remains were buried in Frankfort. The verdict was that
the skull belonged to an African American. Officials in Frankfort quickly
disputed the findings.

Today,
both Frankfort Cemetery in Kentucky and the Old Bryan Farm Graveyard in
Missouri claim to have Daniel Boone’s remains, a conundrum that might have tickled
his fancy …

Friday, September 19, 2014

On
a recent, hot July afternoon, a group made up of nine volunteers began work on
restoring two of the most controversial cemeteries in Illinois – Hickory Hill
and Lawler. The cemeteries are located side by side within sight of the old
Crenshaw place, better known as the Old Slave House.

Gallatin County

Located
in Gallatin County, near Equality, Illinois, these cemeteries are the final resting
places of several members of the Crenshaw and Lawler families including John
Hart Crenshaw, a key figure on the reverse
Underground Railroad. Lawler Cemetery was named after Crenshaw’s
son-in-law, Civil War General Michael Kelly Lawler.

Old Slave House History

John Hart Crenshaw

Slave Auction

John
Hart Crenshaw was a southern Illinois resident who became deeply involved in the slave trade
during the 1820’s; he was charged several times with kidnapping during this
time. Crenshaw became an actual slave trader in 1827.The first documented case against him
involved a black indentured servant named Frank Granger whom Crenshaw kidnapped
and took to Kentucky in 1828.The second
kidnapping case followed on the heels of the first and involved a free black
woman named Lucinda and her two children.Crenshaw kidnapped the three and took them to Barren County, Kentucky in
1828 to be sold into slavery.

In
1829, Crenshaw and his brother, Abraham, bought the land where the Old Slave House
would be built and broke ground in 1834. The house was finished in 1838. Crenshaw
claimed the house was built for his wife, Sinia Taylor Crenshaw and their five
children, but it was also used as a holding station for kidnapped free blacks
before they were sent “down the river” and into slavery in the south. With
Kentucky (a slave state) just across the river, it was easy to do.

Whipping Post

The
first and second floors of the house were furnished with European artwork and
furniture, the third floor was constructed of thicker walls with over a dozen
cells, about the size of horse stalls, all equipped with heavy metal rings and
chains.A whipping post was located at either
end of the hallway next to the windows which provided the only light and air
into the attic.

3rd Floor of the Old Slave House

A
secret wagon entrance was built in the back of the house where covered wagons
carrying kidnapped blacks and indentured whites would drive directly in. Then
those kidnapped would be taken up the back stairs to the third floor attic
where they were imprisoned in cells, tortured, raped, whipped, and sometimes
murdered.

Saline River

Crenshaw
created a reverse Underground
Railroad in Illinois. He and his hired men would capture free blacks from the
North and smuggle them across the river into Kentucky where they would be
“sold down the river” into slavery in
the southern states. Crenshaw even devised a slave-breeding program in the attic.A slave named Uncle Bob was used as the stud
breeder to provide Crenshaw with more “cargo” to sell off down south.

Burning of Mill

Crenshaw
was finally indicted in 1842 for the kidnapping of Maria, his cook, and her
seven children.Because of his clout and
financial standing in the community, he was found not guilty.But people in the area began to talk and suddenly
Crenshaw’s methods were being questioned.His mill was burned and his standing as an upright and moral man in the
community was waning.Business in the
salt works he owned began to decline as more profitable salt was discovered in
Ohio and Virginia. Crenshaw watched as his empire dwindled.

Old Slave House

John & Sinia Crenshaw

Crenshaw
died December 4, 1871, his wife, Sinia, in 1881.Both were buried in the tiny, joined
cemeteries of Hickory Hill and Lawler, located within sight of their former mansion.
The cemetery was avoided by most and eventually fell into disrepair. It seemed
a fitting note that Crenshaw’s stone was toppled off of its pedestal and was
left laying flat in the ground for years.

Then in
December 2000, the State of Illinois acquired the house and two acres of land
from George Sisk, Jr. In 2011, the Center for Archaeological Investigations at
Southern Illinois University in Carbondale finished their historical,
architectural and archaeological research and excavations of the property.

Crenshaw's Stone

But
no one appeared to care about the cemeteries. Vandals had done a lot of damage to
the stones, and storms had wrecked havoc with falling limbs and uprooted trees.

Restoring the Cemeteries

Angie Johnson

When
Angie Johnson, an Illinois native, found out that the cemeteries were in disrepair,
she and her 16-member Good Samaritans Restoration team decided to step in and request
permission to restore and preserve them. It took two years to get the paperwork
in order for the Illinois Historical Preservation Agency before the group could
begin but in 2013, Angie was granted permission to restore Hickory Hill and
Lawler Cemeteries.

Cleaning Stones

The
actual restoration took place this past July. There were about 35 stones in the
cemeteries and most needed some type of repair, restoration or cleaning. Angie and
her team took it all in stride, dividing up into groups to do stone cleaning, stone
repair, and the big jobs - replacing those monuments that had been toppled
over.

Hoisting a Stone in Place

Placing the Stone on the Pedestal

Taking two weekends, the group worked on leveling, repairing, and
hoisting monuments back in place.

Hickory Hill - Before

When the team started the cemetery looked like this -

Hickory Hill - After

Today, the cemetery is back in shape, with straight, gorgeous monuments and stones; a beautiful cemetery that encourages visitors to linger, and once again, demands respect.

Paperwork for Hickory Hill

Good Samaritans Restoration

Angie
took preservation classes through the Illinois Historical Preservation Agency,
learning how to do the restoration work, finding out about laws governing
cemeteries, and discovering how to fill out the mountains of paperwork required
to document the process. The Good Samaritans Restoration Group is made up of
volunteers who give their time freely to repair and restore cemeteries
throughout the state of Illinois.

Toppled Stone ...

Angie
Johnson has had an interest in cemeteries for years. She founded the Illinois Chapter
of the Association of Gravestone Studies in 2012 and holds semi-annual Cemetery
Crawls around the state as a way to acquaint others with the history and beauty
of local and regional cemeteries.

In
2004, the National Park Service declared the Crenshaw House, also known as the
Old Slave House, as a station in the ‘Reverse
Underground Railroad Network to Freedom’ program, thus acknowledging the
sadistic part that John Crenshaw played in condemning free blacks and
indentured servants to lives of slavery.

While Crenshaw was not the only slave trader in the state of Illinois, he
became the most notorious and the most ruthless in Illinois’ history.

Now Owned by the State of Illinois

Posted - NO Trespassing

Unfortunately, the state
of Illinois has no plans to reopen the house. That's a shame since this sad part of the state’s history could make a powerful impact on
visitors, and future generations.

Hickory Hill Cemetery

It
would be wonderful to see Hickory Hill and Lawler Cemeteries also gain
protection under the National Park Service. Thanks to Angie Johnson and her
team, these cemeteries have been restored and can continue to teach this, and subsequent
generations, some powerful lessons.

About Me

I
love wine and will take any chance to sip, savor and share it! Hence, Joy’s JOY
of Wine http://joysjoyofwine.blogspot.com,
a weekly blog about all things wine. I've been in the industry for 15
years as a winery owner, marketing director, speaker, writer, wine judge, and
100% vino girl!

I'm
also a professional freelance magazine and book writer uncorking articles about
wine, food, history, travel, cemetery history and culture. My interest in
cemetery culture led to another great, or maybe I should say
"grave" gig, my weekly blog: A Grave Interest http://agraveinterest.blogspot.com where I get to travel around the country and speak about cemetery topics for genealogy, history and
education conferences.

I suppose you could say that wine is my
passion, and cemeteries are my diversion ... into another world.

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The contents of this site may NOT be used for commercial purposes without explicit written permission from the author and blog owner, Joy Neighbors. All photos are the property of Joy Neighbors and may not be used for financial gain of ANY kind.